VOICE ONE:
This is Shirley Griffith.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Steve Ember with theVOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS.
Today we tell about the United States Botanic Garden. This museumof living plants re-opened in Washington last week.
((THEME))
VOICE ONE:
The trees on the Washington, D.C., streets have lost theirleaves. The wind feels cold. Inside the United States BotanicGarden, however, the world is warm and colorful.
This glass house near the United States Capitol shows rare andbeautiful plants from all over the world.
It re-opened December Eleventhafter more than thirty-three million dollars worth of improvements.The work took four years.
The thin green leaves of fern plants seem to reach out to welcomevisitors as they enter the building. Red poinsettia plants areeverywhere to mark the season around the Christmas and New Yearholidays.
About four-thousand plants are growing in the Botanic Garden.Experts have placed the plants in different areas designed to meettheir special requirements. Each area has different environmentalneeds for the plants growing in it. Light from the glass coveringhigh above fills all the areas. Modern equipment controls thetemperature, water and other needs of each plant group. Theequipment is all new. Seventy percent of the plants are new.
VOICE TWO:
Federal and city officials say they are pleased that the UnitedStates Botanic Garden has opened again. They believe the newbuilding will help bring more visitors to America’s capital city.
The officials are probably correct. Thousands of people alreadyhave visited the re-designed Botanic Gardens. Comments of “ooh” and”ah” and “beautiful!” continually are heard throughout the building.
VOICE ONE:
Visitors enter the plant-house through the Garden Court. Theywalk on a stonework floor past two narrow pools that shoot waterinto the air. Tall plants, trees and street lights line the area.They seem to watch over the visitors in the Garden Court.
Many people stop to examine and take pictures of the chocolatetree growing in the Garden Court. Its small white flowers grow intolarge pods – seed containers. Candy factories and othermanufacturers of sweet foods and cooking supplies use these plantsto make chocolate.
Botanic Garden workers have filled this area with many otherplants. They include plants that provide olives, figs, almonds,plums, tea, coffee and rice. Like the chocolate tree, they are usedto produce food and drink. Experts call them “economic” plants.
((MUSIC BRIDGE))
VOICE TWO:
Visitors can see rare and threatened plants in the EndangeredPlant area. Botanic Garden chief director Holly Shimizu says some ofthese plants are so rare they have no names. She explains how someof the plants got here. Officials at border areas have taken themaway from people entering the United States. The people were tryingto bring the rare plants into the country illegally.
The nearby Plant Exploration House shows modern relatives ofplants collected long ago by Admiral Charles Wilkes. The famousexplorer traveled around the world between Eighteen-Thirty-Eight andEighteen-Forty-Two.
Among the collection are birds of paradise plants. They haveyellow and blue flowers. These are not common flowers, however.Instead, they look very much like birds. One visitor said sheexpected the flowers to sing.
VOICE ONE:
Waterfalls make a calming sound in the Orchid House at theBotanic Garden. Colorful orchid flowers grow directly from the rocksand trees in this area. They include some very rare orchids like theblue Vanda. Another kind of orchid has an unusual color of red. Thecolor is so light that it appears almost white.
Adults praise the beauty of the flowers. Children, however, showmore interest in the tropical pitcher plants in the Orchid House.These plants know when an insect is nearby. They trap the insects.Then, “The plants eat them all up ,” as one young visitor said.
VOICE TWO:
Some very useful plants are in the Medicinal Plant House of theUnited States Botanic Garden. For example, a sausage tree fromAfrica grows here. Earlier relatives of this plant provided thefirst material for a drug effective in treating breast cancer. Andthe black bean plant contains a substance that helps treat AIDS.
Plants called saw palmettos also grow in the Medicinal PlantHouse. They contain a substance that treats prostate cancer. Somepeople use oil from ginger plants like those that grow here. Thisoil is said to help cure stomach and tooth pain.
VOICE ONE:
Stepping into the Palm House is like suddenly finding yourself inSouth America or southern Asia. This room holds a jungle – a thickforest. Designers have created it to look like a farm in a hotcountry, that is no longer used. A fallen tree forms a bridgethrough plants and palm trees. Nature is reclaiming the clearedfarmland.
Light from outside shines on this thickly green world through thetop of the Botanic Garden building. This glass covered area in thePalm Court is twenty-eight meters high. You can climb steps to seethe palm trees and other growth from above.
From the heights, you can see silver rings that circle thebottoms of the royal palms. Brown fur covers part of trees calledTeddy Bear palms. As you might expect, the bottle palms look likehuge bottles used to hold liquids.
VOICE TWO:
The World Desert House has cactus plants that are old, unusual orrare. The blue cycad cacti have sharp needles extending from them.These cycads are related to a plant Admiral Wilkes brought toWashington more than one-hundred-fifty years ago.
Some visitors express surprise about other plants here. They didnot expect to see grasses, trees and flowering plants growing inthis dry desert area of the Botanic Garden.
The nearby Garden Primeval contains plants that existed on earthmore than a million years ago. One young visitor said it looked likedinosaurs should be walking among the fern plants.
((MUSIC BRIDGE))
VOICE ONE:
The tradition leading to the present United State Botanic Gardenbegan in Eighteen-Sixteen. At that time a cultural organization inWashington, D.C., proposed creating a special garden. This gardenwas to have plants from the United States and other nations.
Four years later, Congress established the garden of theColumbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences. Theplants were shown in an area west of the Capitol building untilEighteen-Thirty-Seven. The Columbian Institute stopped meeting thatyear. People in Washington, however, did not want to be without agarden.
VOICE TWO:
In Eighteen-Forty-Two, Admiral Wilkes’ group of explorersreturned from the South Seas. The plants they had collected found ahome in a specially built glass covered house. In lateEighteen-Fifty, workers moved the plants into a new structure on theplace where the first garden had been. In Nineteen-Thirty-Three, thegarden was re-established in its present main home. The buildingoccupies a large piece of land at the foot of the Capitol building.
VOICE ONE:
The United States Botanic Garden will continue to grow. A privateorganization called the National Fund for the United States BotanicGarden is raising money for a National Garden. It will be plantedoutside, to the west of the Botanic Garden building.
The new open-air garden will show unusual and useful plants thatgrow well in the area around Washington, on the east coast of theUnited States. An Environmental Learning Center will teachenvironmental sciences and the art of growing plant life.
VOICE TWO:
Many special areas are planned for the new National Garden. Ashowcase garden will hold many kinds of trees, grasses, flowers andother plant life seen in America. The rose garden will contain morethan two-hundred kinds of historical and modern roses. A butterflygarden will have plants that colorful butterfly insects like tovisit. A children’s garden will contain play areas.
VOICE ONE:
Visitors praise the beauty of the rebuilt plant center. Chiefdirector Shimizu, however, says the garden has other importantpurposes, too. One is the possibility for creating plant collectionsthat are more scientific.
Mizz Shimizu also says the Botanic Garden provides a naturalatmosphere where people can think, or just rest. She says looking atplant life helps heal the human spirit.
((THEME))
VOICE TWO:
This Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Itwas produced by Cynthia Kirk. The audio engineer was Mick Shaw. Thisis Steve Ember.
VOICE ONE:
And this is Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week at thistime for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America.